Stereophile's Products of 2008 2008 Editors' Choice

2008 Editors' Choice

Traditionally, as Stereophile's longtime Editor, I have reserved this section to myself. But it seemed more democratic in this election year to allow all of the magazine's review team the opportunity to be involved. I asked each to name the component that had provided him with the most musical pleasure this past year, and to sum up in a single sentence the reasons why. John Atkinson

John Atkinson: Revel Ultima Salon2 loudspeaker ($22,000/pair; Vol.31 No.6, June 2008). "If it hadn't been for the Revel, the big KEF '207/2 would have got the nod this year. But I was won over by the Salon2's combination of superb speaker engineering, top-to-bottom balance and sonic coherence, and apparently unlimited dynamic range, with nary a trace of compression or distortion."

Brian Damkroger: Placette Active Line Stage ($6995; Vol.30 No.11, November 2007): "The Placette is full-functioned, simple to use, and closer to perfectly transparent than any other preamp I've heard."

Art Dudley: Schopper mods for Thorens TD-124 (Vol.31 No.5, May 2008). "When I look at the 1960s-vintage Thorens TD-124, I say, 'That is what good engineering looks like.' The full brace of Schopper refinements created a record player that could compete with virtually anything I've heard in terms of treble openness and clarity, midrange detail, andespeciallybass extension."

Michael Fremer: Sooloos Music Server ($7900$10,500; Vol.31 No.9, September 2008). "Easy ripping, instant access, iPodTouch remote controllability, great graphics, auto-downloaded credits from AMG, ingenious interface, sound that's as good as if not better than direct CD playback, and, best of all, it clears the shelves to make room for more vinyl."

Jon Iverson: Sooloos Music Server ($7900$10,500; Vol.31 No.9, September 2008). "A bitchin' software/hardware interface that makes it a piece of cake to manage thousands of albums of music. A well-thought-out, top-to-bottom music-server system that focuses on the music and sound and hides all the tweaking, importing, and backup issues behind a simple yet powerful approach."

Fred Kaplan: Krell Evolution 505 SACD player ($10,000; Vol.31 No.9, September 2008). "Through its CAST outputs, the Krell Evolution 505 is the best CD player I've ever heard in my housemaybe the best I've ever heard, period. I found its sound jaw-droppingly superb."

Stephen Mejias: Rega P3-24 turntable ($895$1269; Vol.31 No.7, July 2008). "Ever since this damn turntable came into my life, I haven't been able to stop buying records. Dammit!"

Wes Phillips: AKG K 701 headphones ($539; Vol.30 No.12, Vol.31 Nos.6 & 9, December 2007, June & September 2008). "Every time I think I have discovered how good these headphones are, I discover that they're even better than I thoughtfor example, hearing them through a single-ended balanced headphone amp recently showed me that, previously, I had only reached the limits of its ancillary components. If literature is news that stays new, surely a high-end classic is one that makes everything sound new."

Sam Tellig: Harbeth Compact 7 ES3 loudspeaker ($3495/pair; Vol.31 No.6, June 2008). "Combines the (almost) full-range sound of a large monitor with the imaging of a small one, and that classic BBC sound that never goes over the top."